Everything Comes With A Price
by Gnarled Bone
Summary: The bell tolls. The tapestry did not bring her mother back. Her answer sealed her fate, and the scar on her arm seared with a scorching heat. -Oneshot. Feedback is appreciated.


**AN: **Alrighty, just watched 'Brave' and couldn't get it off my mind. Since my mind seems to lean towards dark and tragic thoughts, even though I like happy and fluffy stuff, I made this. Around 1,800 words, not including this Author's Note. Enjoy.

Warning:_ Character death, and it's not exactly word for word from the movie seeing as I don't have it and I went to theatre to watch it._

* * *

"I refuse!" Blue eyes bore furiously into Elinor's own.

"Merida, this is what you've been taught to do! What we've spent _every_ hour, day and _night_ teaching you to be!" Elinor's face was aflame with anger and exasperation.

"This is what _you_ want! Not what I want! You've never stopped to ask what_ I_ want!" Merida threw her hands up in the air, pacing, the dress her mother forced her into ripped and in tatters after the archery competition.

Elinor had brought Merida here after her stunt at the challenges, the ones held for her hand in marriage. They continued to argue until Merida snapped.

"No! Merida, don't _you_ dare!"

Merida ignored her.

The tapestry displaying her family was sliced, seperating Elinor from Fergus and Merida.

Elinor's face, ahgast at what her daughter had done, turned to anger, stomping up to Merida and removing the arrows from her before the bow. Once the thin wood was in her grasp she turned towards the fire.

"Mum, _no!_ Stop!"

Like Merida ignored her mother, Elinor ignored her daughter's pleas.

The bow burned, it's wood darknening, splintering once it was placed within the crackling flames.

Merida was horrified, struck with dread and anger. Tears welled up in her eyes before her face shifted into that of contempt.

"Merida, don't you walk away from me!"

The large, heavy door slammed harshly, shaking the frame. Elinor glared at the door before her eyes widened and she quickly ran to the fire, attempting to get the bow out without scorching her hands. Once she had succeeded she held the bow in her lap, horrified as her fingers trace the wood and her eyes engraved it's damaged state into her mind.

She recalled her daughter's horrified face and tear-filled eyes. "Merida... I'm so sorry."

* * *

"It's a peace offering! I made it myself, just _for_ you."

Elinor looked sceptical for a moment before relenting, taking a bite out of the dessert. Her face scrunched up at the taste after she swallowed, feeling odd.

"What did you_ put_ in this? Oh, I don't feel so good..."

* * *

"Bear!"

Elinor looked confused when she towered over her daughter and Merida scrambled away from her, terrified. She was startled at her cry and tried to speak, only for her voice to come out in garbled growls and grunts. Her eyes widened and she looked down. Fur, _black_ fur covered her body, and long, shiny black claws adorned her paws.

She stumbled, taking a reflective plate out of a drawer and looked into it. She fell over, frightened and confused by her reflection, and scrambled back towards her daughter.

They both looked at eachother.

_"Mum?"_ Came the incredulous question that seemed more of a statement.

* * *

She draped the tapestry over her mother's bestial form and waited, they all did. She prayed it would work.

The light slowly slid down onto the stone pillars, before making it's way to the pair sitting on the floor. Merida was beginning to lose hope, faith, that her mom would turn back. Why wasn't it working? Did she not mend it like the witch said or was it all _wrong?_

She latched onto the bear's fur in frustration and despair when she saw the sclera vanish and darkness take over her mother's warm brown orbs, taking a shade of a near black chocolate brown, signifying that her mother's will had been overcome by the instincts of the beast she was locked in. She weeped, apologizing, and even as the light touched the tapestry, her mother did not return to her.

* * *

It was her own fault.

All of it.

She split the tapestry in a fit of anger, to prove a point, to show how furious she was.

She didn't mean for this.

Why couldn't she have let her choose her own fate?

Why'd she have to throw her bow, her precious, beloved bow, into the unforgiving flames?

Why couldn't she have listened, given her a chance?

Was she nothing more than a puppet?

No, her mother was just doing what she thought best.

Now, because of her _own_ selfishness, she was nothing more than a puppet without strings.

Her mother was lost, her rational mind clouded by instinct, and in her place was this... beast.

Maybe her mother was still there? If only a little?

The bear..._ her mother_... did not hurt her.

Docile.

_"I'll always be there for you."_

* * *

Sh- no, _it_, - followed her everywhere. Almost seeming to protect her, even though it didn't understand why. The residents within the kingdom did not bother them. There was a certain... _softness,_ in those dark animalistic orbs that she did not miss, and it made her chest throb in remorse all the more.

The witch did this. She didn't warn her of the consequences.

But she got her wish.

Her fate _was_ changed.

_...Just not in the way she wanted it to be. _Hoped it to be.

"I want you back... _I love you_..." Her muffled sobs did not do anything but cause her chest to throb, heaving from lack of breath and sheer agony. Tears had stained the bear's rich fur that day, and the bear did nothing, could do nothing, to help soothe her aching heart.

She learned the true meaning of sorrow.

* * *

Her father couldn't bear it. He got sicker every day.

He did not eat, his face got paler with every time he saw the bears. Darkness lined his eyelids, a testament to how well he slept.

He didn't speak much anymore, and no humour left his lips, not like it used to.

Her brothers...

They did not commit anymore pranks. There was no mischief or deviousness behind their once bright orbs.

Only instinct.

They followed her and her mother.

Her heart longed for them, mourning her mistake.

She missed her mother's scolding, giving her brother's her dessert and joking with her father. Together, as a family...

_A chime sounded._

* * *

_Why?_

Why was she still here? Why did she continue breathing even though it hurt so much?

Why couldn't Mor'du have killed her that day?

The scar on her arm seared, as if the wound had reappeared.

What was it trying to tell her?

A blue, etheral light lit up outside her window, illuminating whatever it's light could reach with an ominious glow.

* * *

The will-o-wisps led her to the circle of stone pillars.

The same place where she last saw her mother in her rational state of mind.

The witch was there.

Her eyes seemed to bore into her skull.

"Why?"

The witch seemed to consider the question, before answering.

"A lesson. I believe the saying goes: 'Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.' Am I correct?"

Silence reigned, before it was broken.

"Change her back. Change them back. I'll do anythin', anythin' you want."

The witch stared at her coldly, her raven perched on her shoulder and leering at her, it's avian face seeming to be placed in an _odd_ smile.

"Anything?"

Blue eyes narrowed, grim determination shining behind them.

"Anythin'."

Her answer sealed her fate, once and for all.

The scar on her arm seared with a scorching heat, burning an angry red.

_A bell tolled, interrupting the sudden silence, it's chime seeming to give off an ominious warning._

* * *

A father shocked, staring almost blankly at his daughter's form.

She was sleeping. Sleeping in a slumber from which she would never wake.

Her scar was aflame with red, and oddly hot when her flesh was cold.

Red hair framed her face like curtains, a flaming halo, and eyelids were closed shut, giving off an aura of peacefulness.

She wouldn't _wake_ up.

There were no wounds.

* * *

The beasts were gone.

A mother shook with unrestrained sobs, hands threading into scarlet locks and her forehead pressed to her daughter's own, pleading for her to open her eyes, to wake up and smile at her.

The brothers were confused and angry. Innocence still clouded their minds. Why wouldn't there big sister wake up? Why were they trying to bury her in the pristine white box? Their mother was crying, and their sister was just lying there, as if she couldn't hear her. Why was their father acting like that?

The coffin was soon covered in rich soil, a screaming mother and the triplets restrained, tears streaking down their faces. A father could only stare on his knees at the newly placed gravestone, his daughter's name etched into the fine cut stone. Fergus' arms were limp and his eyes were clouded, unable to comprehend what was happening.

In an odd, twisted sort of way, Merida got her wish.

She _changed_ her fate.

She was free.

_...But at what price?_

* * *

Within the darkness Merida thought she heard her Mother Elinor singing to her, but it was different.

It sounded so sad, filled with suffering. It made Merida weep.

_Hidden within the silence, a single bell tolled one final time._

* * *

**AN:** So how was it? Like it? Hate me for killing Merida? Reviews are appreciated.

Just noticed I made and unintentional rhyme in the summary, I hate when that happens. Might change it later... eh, I'm too lazy for that.

I can only seem to write dark, tragic, and angsty stuff. I think it's helping placate my chronic nightmares and insomnia when I write it out. I still refuse to go to a therapist. I'm _not_ insane or suicidal though. Well, maybe a _little_ insane, but hey, who isn't? Completely sane people can be boring. They're to sane to take _risks_. XD


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